principality · Germany and Central Europe

Principality of Salm

1802 CE – 1811 CE · capital Bocholt

Napoleonic-era principality in the Münsterland, given to two Salm princes in compensation for lands lost to France.

Origins

The princes of Salm-Salm and Salm-Kyrburg lost their territories in the Vosges and on the left bank of the Rhine to revolutionary France. Under the settlement of 1802 and the Imperial Recess of 1803, they jointly received the districts of Bocholt and Ahaus from the secularised Prince-Bishopric of Münster, forming the Principality of Salm.

Rule and society

The two princely houses held the state jointly, with Salm-Salm taking two-thirds and Salm-Kyrburg one third, and governed from Bocholt and Anholt. The territory was Catholic and agrarian. In 1806 it joined the Confederation of the Rhine as a sovereign member. The Salm-Kyrburg prince Frederick III had been guillotined in Paris in 1794, and his young son Frederick IV succeeded him.

Decline and legacy

In December 1810 Napoleon annexed north-western Germany to secure the coast against British trade, and Salm was incorporated into France in 1811. In 1815 the territory passed to Prussia, where the Salm families remained as mediatised landowners.

Lineage

Wild- and Rhinegraviate 1409 CE – 1794 CEPrincipality of Salm

Connections (2)

More states of Germany and Central Europe →

Cite this page
APA
The Epoch Institute. (2026). Principality of Salm. In The Epoch Institute States Register. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/principality-of-salm-1802
MLA
“Principality of Salm.” The Epoch Institute States Register, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/principality-of-salm-1802. Accessed .
Chicago
The Epoch Institute. “Principality of Salm.” The Epoch Institute States Register. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/principality-of-salm-1802.
Harvard
The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Principality of Salm’, The Epoch Institute States Register. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/principality-of-salm-1802 (Accessed: ).

Last reviewed October 2026Random state ↻